Is anyone there?  I mean at the end of your fingertips?

I’m writing these words to you on my Macbook Pro sitting in a massive leather chair in my favorite spot for hot brown beverages.  All around me is a low buzz of people engaged in conversation.  Not 10 feet from me is a lady in her fifties writing a novel.  Two young lovers are leaning into each other sharing what looks to be a chocolate Nainamo bar.  An old man stares at a newspaper folded into eighths near the door.  I can tell that old habits die hard for him.  I bet he used to ride the subway downtown to work in a suit and tie back in the day.

Sometimes you just have to be around people.  As an entrepreneur I find the craft to be solitary at times.  The most difficult part of being a business developer is the thinking.  The pure unadulterated act of thinking can by physically exhausting.  But it’s also the single most profitable thing you can do…except for the actual doing of the thing you were thinking about.

As an extremely high paid performance coach, I see recurring patterns in the entrepreneurs I work with.  One of these patterns is what I call The Flat Tunnel Phenomenon.

For many years I competed at a very high level in martial arts.  The training was much more difficult than the actual fights themselves.   The goal was to push the heart rate to the maximum to strengthen it and build efficiency.  When my cardio was being taxed to the limit, my perception of the world would change.  Instead of being 3 dimensional, filled with color, depth and texture, it would collapse inwards.  My breathing in my ears would become deafening, and my peripheral vision would shrink until my world was a 2 dimensional picture in black and white.  It was like looking through a rolled up magazine.   It was like my central operating computer was shutting down non-essential systems to enable me to see a punch or kick coming, and not much more.  Anytime the Flat Tunnel occurred I knew I was at my very outer limit of performance.

With my coaching clients, as the mounting pressures and stress to perform and build companies and live an enriching life strained them, the same phenomenon would occur.  They would withdraw methodically deep into their over-taxed existence.  The great thing about The Flat Tunnel is it gives you extreme focus on one thing, usually survival.  The bad thing is your body can’t sustain it very long.  If you’ve ever watched a UFC fight and heard Joe Rogan describe a fighter as “gassed”, you know what unfortunately happens to entrepreneurs.  When a fighter gasses their ability to recover inbetween rounds is exceeded.  And they usually lose the fight.  When an entrepreneur exceeds their ability to recover even after a weekend or holiday, same result.  They burn out, resent their business, and invariably quit.Top level athletes and top level entrepreneurs build recovery into their routines.   List three things you are doing now in your life to “recover” from the stress you place on yourself.

1.

2.

3.

You know what’s crazy?  Nine out of ten people who read this will not write in those blanks.  As Jim Rohn stated, “That’s just the way it is!”

One of the methods I use to bring fresh energy and fresh ideas into my world is through the Mastermind Principle.  If you haven’t read Think And Grow Rich by Napolean Hill, do so now.  Frankly I’m surprised you’re readying my stuff before Hill’s.  Too frightening to imagine, so let’s assume you’re familiar with the concept of getting together with a group of your peers to leverage the power of The Third Mind.

The concept of fresh energy I learned again from cage fighting.  In between rounds you go back to your corner.  Your corner man starts talking to you in a calming voice  (hopefully).  He gets you to take slow, deep breaths on a count to reset your breathing and drop your adrenaline pump.  The assistant cornerman cools you down with an icebag on the back of your neck, back and top of your head.  It’s important to allow some of the incredible heat generated by your amped metabolism to dissipate.  Your cut man puts vaseline on any contusions and uses a frozen metal device on your swelling to get it to come down.  Your mini-break between rounds of combat takes a well organized team to leverage to maximum advantage.

I get the fresh energy I so badly need as an entrepreneur in part from my various mastermind assocations.  I am part of one group that meets one Monday morning per month.  In that one I am just a participant.   At that meetup I get access to entrepreneurs in industries very different than my own.  There is an actress, a mortgage broker, a real estate agent, an interior designer, a dj, and even a horse rancher.  I get to just show up, share, and network.

I am also the organizer of the Mississauga Entrepreneurs Network.  I fell into this one by accident and is has amazed me.

In 2007 I was joining every social media platform I could.  It was the front edge of the wave called Web 2.0.  Instead of having to build websites and create content to create traffic from scratch, this gigantic influx of new sites to leverage was in full steam.  One of the sites I joined was Meetup.com

I joined a dozen local meetups related to niches I had an interest.  Internet marketing, blogging, online stores, entrepreneurship, public speaking, the list was endless, even back then.  One day after about 90 days as a member I got an email from Meetup head office.  The email mentioned that the organizer of the Mississauga Entrepreneurs Meetup was stepping down, and they were emailing the members of the list to see if they would take over the organizing duties.  I clicked the link in the email, went to the site, put in my credit card and $75 later I owned a mailing list of 200 local entrepreneurs!

I really didn’t realize what I had my hands on.  A person had gone to great lengths to build the list from scratch, create content, organize events and add value to project.   Being the dunderhead I am sometimes I sat on it and did nothing for 6 months.  I tested out the platform in April of 2008.

In 5 minutes I organized a meetup at a local coffee shop, and using the Meetup organizers platform I sent a bulletin to the list.  A few days later a half dozen entrepreneurs showed up.  We drank coffee together and talked shop.

I repeated the experiment a month later.  One of the gentlemen who showed up was an author and speaker from Europe.  He had read my newsletter for 6 years, and happened to be in Toronto the week of my meetup.

Listen to me.  You never know when a chance meeting will alter your life forever.Five months after that meetup, the gentleman in question was travelling from the Caribbean back to England at Christmas time, and had a two day layover in Toronto.  I invited him to stay with us.  I picked him up at the airport at 4 am, fed him for two days and we brainstormed a dozen business models like crazy.  He headed back to London and at the airport shook my hand and laughed, “you never know when we’ll meet again!”.

Sixty days later I was in a business relationship with him.  That lead me to 4 trips to the UK and a trip to Malaysia in the next 18 months and over a half million dollars in gross revenue.  Plus dozens and dozens of new friendships and acquaintances.  Can you imagine that?Nowadays I organize a local meetup every 3 weeks.  I limit the group to 15-20 attendees.  And the focus is on creating an enriching experience for the participants that gives them fresh energy and new perspective on growing their business.

From these events I have created a laboratory of amazing ideas.  Some of my best podcasts have come from the participants.  I have created new video content on youtube from these events.  During the “show and tell” segment I have discovered new pain points.  In martial arts a pain point is an opportunity to win a fight.  As an entrepreneur a pain point is an opportunity to provide real value for a customer.

I have attended meetups in bars and restaurants and found them less than suitable.  In the beginning I organized my test events in coffee shops and found the same challenge.  The entrepreneurs in my group had a tough time with coffee shops.  Some lacked the committment to really stick with a group.  They felt they could show up late and just “pop-in” to say hi.  Once a guy pulled his table over to our tables and joined the conversation even though he wasn’t a member!  Trying to speak over the din was inimidating to some.  It took a few tries but here is what I have found works best.

We book the private dining room in a local restaurant.  I have found 3 in total in my city of 600,000 that meets our needs.  I sat down with the owners, told them about our Entrepreneurs group and invite them to participate.  We get the room at no charge because we are willing to hold our meetings on their slowest night  (in our case, Monday evenings).

I always charge $20 for our meetups.  This weeds out the tire kickers.  I put 100% of the charge into food at the event.  So in my case I don’t use the meetups as a profit center on our regular mastermind events.  You certainly could, and in the case of a special guest speaker it would make sense.

Part of the wonderful experience at our meetups is the food itself.  I take pride in showcaing great restaurants owned by local entrepreneurs to our members.  The CEO of a record label made the entire room laugh one night.  He tried lamb vindaloo and some exotic Indian dishes, and you could see his eyes get really big and he did the reverse blow…when he could breathe again he exclaimed, “just FYI everyone yellow food means HOT!”

We set the room up in a horseshoe shape so everyone can see everone else.  Everyone gets a turn to address the room.   It’s an amazing business laboratory.

 

1.  Confirm menu at restaurant with owner week before.

2.  Send video to confirmed list 3 days before showing location.  Use youtube, shoot on iphone from parking lot of location.  Use Meetup to send link.

3.  Arrive 15 minutes early to setup private room.

4.  For groups under 20 use setup tables in horseshoe.

5.  Confirm check in on Meetup.com using Iphone.  Gets participants to check in online as they arrive.  (this trains the group to use the app, strengthening the social proof on the group page)

6.  Greet participants as they arrive, make them feel welcome.  Take their photo with your Iphone to post online, pose with them if possible.

7. Start meeting on time, greet group, encourage them to put phones on vibrate, take photos and upload them in real time to the Meetup group ap.  Set mood for evening, upbeat, relaxed, explain the 90 minutes for time, welcome to leave early if necessary.  Announce that you give rewards to fans on facebook, and followers on twitter.  Physically show participants how to follow you and join your social contacts.  5-7 minutes total.

8. Pass out blank paper.  Top of page your name, and have them describe your business in one sentence.

9.  Two questions, “What’s working really well right now in your business?” and “What’s missing in your business?”  Wait for everyone to write one sentence in each area.

10.  Flip sheet over, number vertically 1 to X (x being # of participants).  As each person stands at front of room, you jot down their name and business, plus one idea that you know that might help them, a resource, a clarifying question, etc.

11.  Video record each person’s segment (2-3 minutes) to edit later in highlight or promo video.

12.  The goal is to get 15 people per hour through this process.  Be a stickler for time, when a segment runs 3 minutes purposefully break it, encourage them to connect privately to network after.

13.  After everyone is through, thank the group, announce the next Meetup.   Hand out freebies, bonus reports or marketing intelligence now.  Encourage everyone to stick around to network, eat  (if applicable) and to share ideas.  Highlight the value in the piece of paper that they took the notes on.  Get them asking the questions they wrote for each person, gives them a focus on networking to add value to each other.

14.  Position yourself strategically near the exit, as people leave thank them for coming.  Followup either later that evening or first thing in the morning with a comment on their meetup profile, and a followup email.  Look to book locked in appointments for a followup phone call, podcast interview or private session.

15.  Send a thank you card in the mail to the restaurant owner.  Invite them to participate in the next meetup.

16.  Start promotion on next meetup immediately.  Email the participants to fill out the testimonial and feedback form.  Encourage them to post any photos from the event.

17.  Start editing the video recordings.  Create a highlight video 3-5 minutes in length, use intro and exit graphics, add captions to each participants segments to give their urls promotion.  Post on your youtube channel, on your blog, and cross promote to other video channels with a backlink to your meetup group page.

18.  Email the highlight video to the participants.  Encourage them to post on their facebook and twitter pages, on their company blog, etc.  Use fast examples as social proof in followups.

19.  The fastest way to grow your Meetup is to attend other meetups in related niches.  Important to soft sell at other people events.  Offer lots of value, no pressure, give Super Postcard as your business card for promotion.  Use your best social skills to make new friends, have impecable followup to build the relationship.

20.  Remember to delegate promotion of your new content to your social media team.  Backlink the new youtube video, plus the updated content on the meetup page.  Upload the best photos to Twitpic, use relevant keywords.  Backlink the twitpic photos.  Upload photos to Flickr, Photobucket, Facebook Fan page, and backlink.  Backlink the highlight video on the various video sharing sites.

I’m deep into 2500 words here, so I’ll end this post with a strong suggestion.  Don’t wait for someone else to step up and lead…you do it. Talk soon! - David

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David is an early Internet pioneer.  He is a lifelong entrepreneur, author, speaker and trainer. David retired in 2005 at the age of 37 with his wife Falia to pursue adventures in mixed martial arts, travel, writing and coaching other entrepreneurs.  He sporadically blogs about the joy of child carrying with a  Baby Sling and Internet Marketing when he is not golfing or playing World of Warcraft.

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